Each time I visit Australia, I have the same thought: "If I were 30 years younger, I'd move here!"

In fact, we almost did. Forty years ago my father had wanted to take advantage of the assisted-passage program offered by the Australian government, through which British people could move to Australia for just 10 British pounds. What finally put him off the idea was Australia's presence in Vietnam. He did not want to lose any of his six sons fighting a war he strongly opposed.

But many Australians did die in Vietnam. Australians also made the ultimate sacrifice, dying in great numbers, particularly in World War I and World War II. The country also sent its soldiers to Korea and more recently to the first Persian Gulf War. Australians now serve alongside their American and British allies in Iraq.

It's ironic: Australians inhabit the one continent that has not experienced war, yet their record in fighting for freedom is second to none—especially when you consider the country's relatively small population. Australia is the only nation in the world that fought in World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and the two Persian Gulf conflicts against Iraq from beginning to end. When it comes to the ongoing defense of the Western world, Australia truly is an underappreciated country.

Australia is a relatively new country. British settlement of the island continent did not begin until after the United States was formed as an independent nation. The first European settlers sailed into Botany Bay in 1788.

Throughout the 19th century they continued to come until, at the dawn of the 20th century, Australia became an independent nation, one of the dominions that formed the nucleus of the British Commonwealth. As The Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it: "A British dominion and a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, it had become the most important monument to the British Empire in the Southern Hemisphere" (15th edition, Macropaedia, 1976, "Australia," p. 399).

In writing of the character of the Australian people, the encyclopedia states: "The long struggle by these settlers to tame the Australian Outback helped to form the tough and independent character of modern Australians just as the struggles of the pioneers and frontiersmen helped to mold the national character of the United States" (p. 403).

Together with Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, the dominions played an incredible role in helping Great Britain during the two major conflicts of the 20th century.

Isolated some 12,000 miles from London via the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, and 7,000 miles from the United States, the Australians could easily have stayed out of the 1914-18 war against Germany and the other Axis Powers. But Australians volunteered in the hundreds of thousands to fight. Tens of thousands
of them died.

Australians help Great Britain

After relying on Britain for defense during most of the 19th century, Australia was to more than pay Britain back in the conflicts of the 20th. Colonial troops had already fought alongside the British in the last two decades of the 19th century, in both the Sudan and the Boer War. But in World War I, 330,000 Australians were to serve—60,000 of whom did not return. An additional 165,000 suffered wounds. Few nations paid such a heavy price.

The Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) played a key role in the 1915 campaign in the Dardanelles, the narrow straight in western Turkey linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea, a crucial crossroads between Europe and the Middle East. April 25—the day of the ANZAC landing there at Gallipoli—came to be honored as a day of national reverence.

Yet even before that, Australian forces had captured German New Guinea and the German cruiser Emden was sunk by the Australian navy. After the Dardanelles campaign, Australian troops fought in many bloody battles in France. In the Holy Land, Australian cavalry helped British forces defeat Turkey, leading to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

In World War II, Australia again came to Britain's aid, long before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor threatened Australia itself. Again the Australians made a heavy sacrifice. Around 30,000 of them died in World War II; another 65,000 were injured.

In the 27 months that the British Empire and Commonwealth fought Germany before America entered the war, Australians played a major role in helping the British avoid defeat. During the Battle of Britain, when the United Kingdom was fighting for its very survival, the
Royal Australian Air Force was active in defending the skies over the island nation.

At the same time, the Royal Australian Navy operated in the Mediterranean, helping to win the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941. Australian troops fought in North Africa against Rommel's Afrika Korps, with Australians playing the greatest role during the Allied defense of Tobruk in late 1941. Australians suffered heavy losses in the Allied defeats in Greece and Crete, as well as in the Allied victories in the Levant. All of this was prior to Pearl Harbor, which changed the country's priorities.

Australia assists America

After Pearl Harbor, Australia was to look to the United States as its principal ally in the Pacific theater. As World War II Prime Minister John Curtin declared: "I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free from any pangs about our traditional links of friendship to Britain."

Two months later, emphasizing this change of direction, after losing 15,000 men in the fall of Singapore, Prime Minister Curtin insisted that Australian troops recalled from the Middle East should return to Australia itself and not be used in Burma as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted. Four days after the fall of Singapore, the northern Australian city of Darwin was bombed by Japanese planes.

U.S. General Douglas MacArthur placed his headquarters in Australia, while the Australian navy assisted in the victorious Battle of the Coral Sea in May of 1942. After that, Americans and Australians were to fight together in many of the battles of World War II. Australia"s role, though secondary, remained very significant. After 1942 the British Royal Navy was no longer Australia's protection against invasion or foreign attack.

Following World War II, Australia was to look more to the United States than to Britain, forming the ANZUS treaty with America and New Zealand. Australia sent troops to Korea and Vietnam. More recently, Australians have fought in both Persian Gulf conflicts. Additionally, they supported Britain in the only successful anti-insurgency war of modern times, fought in Malaysia in the 1960s. More recently, Australia has helped end regional conflicts in East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

But it"s not only in the fight for freedom that Australians have been prominent. Australia is also a caring and compassionate nation that is actively involved in helping its neighbors. After the Dec. 26 tsunami, Australia, geographically almost as big as the United States but with only 19 million residents, pledged more aid than any other single nation. Australians were among the first to arrive with material help, alleviating the suffering of tsunami survivors.

The source of Australia's blessings

Australia truly has been blessed. It has often been called the "lucky country." But luck has nothing to do with the tremendous blessings of this great land.

The preamble to the Australian con-stitution begins: "Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God . . ."

Indeed, it is God who gave this land to the original British settlers, as part of the promised blessing to the descendants of Joseph, the favorite son of the biblical patriarch Jacob, whom God renamed Israel.

Through Jacob, God revealed that Joseph's two sons were to grow into "a multitude of nations" (Genesis 48:19), a prophecy that was fulfilled in the British Empire and Commonwealth, and a "great" single nation, the United States of America.

As descendants of Abraham, these nations were to be a blessing to "all the families of the earth" (Genesis 12:3). Joseph was further told that his descendants would be a "fruitful bough" (Genesis 49:22). Australia and America have been two of the most productive agricultural nations on earth, helping to feed the world"s hungry and poverty-stricken peoples.

These nations, along with Great Britain and the other nations of the British Commonwealth, were also to play a military role "in the last days" (Genesis 49:1).

Verses 23-24 describe this role: "With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob" (New International Version). In other words, God—whether acknowledged or not—has played a major hand in these nations" victories.

Australia is an underappreciated country. But the great God who gave Australians their wealth and their strength is also underappreciated, even in Australia. The world needs to give thanks for Australia and also for the God who gave this land its many blessings. GN